Five Canadian quick draw competitors were teased about Donald Trump's 51st state comments during a May trip to compete in South Dakota, but it wasn't anything serious, said Den Robinson, director of the Langley-based Thunderbird Fast Draw Club.
It was their first trip south this year.
"With all of that '51st State hooraw' going on, and with riots and everything else happening below our border, several members of the Thunderbird Fast Draw Club were somewhat hesitant to venture south with their sixguns, but wanted to take part in the Wax Bullet Fast Draw Championships in Sturgis, South Dakota at the end of the month," Robinson explained.
"It sure wasn't our fellow American shooters we were worried about, it was any of the others [down south] that might be angry if they saw some B.C. – Canada license plates in their territory."
With some relief, Robinson can report the trip to Sturgis was incident-free, though their American hosts couldn't resist teasing the Canadians.
Trump's comments about annexing Canada or inviting it to become the 51 state have not gone over well in Canada, but Robinson didn't take it seriously when U.S. competitors made jokes about it.
"I thought it was a joke from the beginning," Robinson commented.
One of the prizes at the event was a Trump t-shirt, which allowed Robinson to get a big laugh by claiming he would wear it driving back into Canada.
As they have before, Langley's Shawn and Paula Murphy were top guns in Sturgis, with Shawn taking first in Men's Top Open class while Paula won in the Women's Thumbing class (an event calling for the shooter to use only one hand to draw and fire the gun).
Robinson took fifth in the Men's Top Open.
Crossing back into Canada, Robinson, who did not wear the Trump t-shirt, had a pleasant encounter at the border when he declared his handgun.
"The nice young Canadian border guard gal asked me ''what kind of firearm do you have?' I told her; "A Ruger single-action sixgun." When she answered 'oh, for fast draw?,' I sat up; kind of surprised she'd know that. I said 'yes.' She said 'I've seen that on t.v., it's so cool!' Then she asked 'how fast are you?" I said 'nNot as fast as we used to be!" She laughed and said 'yYou may go right through,' pointing straight ahead. It was the first time we hadn't been pulled over in years."
Coming up for the Thunderbirds, a demo of fast draw on Brae Island on July 6. After that, the long-running World Fast Draw blank championships will take place again at the Aldergrove Fair on July 19 and 20.
Robinson describes the Aldergrove Fair Fast event as "the most consecutive-on-going contest in the history of the sport," which includes a celebrity shootout at high noon on the Saturday.
